Remember the Trofeo? We do, too, but we still don’t really understand it nor how it was supposed to fit into the Oldsmobile strategy. Wait, did Olds have a strategy?
It turns out there was a strategy, and that it had unfortunately dictated the downsizing of the successful Toronado as a late reaction to the late 70s fuel crisis. By the time the car launched, gas was cheap again and the smaller, blander Toronado was nowhere near the sales success its predecessor had been. The Trofeo was an attempt to pump life back into the Toronado and was a sporty halo model. Ultimately, it didn’t work, but the Trofeo was much better looking than the anonymous base Toronado and the 1990+ model was, itself, a big improvement over the prior year’s car. Supposedly, all sheetmetal changed except for the hood.
The seller of this one notes that the paint is “shinny”, which, some say, is a good thing. Seller also points out this is a good one to restore. Has anyone ever restored a Trofeo? Will anyone ever bother?
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Elfrida, AZ (huh?)
$1,985 with ZERO bids
05/25/2013 update: SOLD for $2,010 with two bids, but then relisted…hmm.
This car had exhaust tips that seemed to imitate the V12 E-Types with the ‘fanning out’ with split tips. We seem to recall that some other Olds cars had interesting exhausts back then – the Quad 4 Calais and the convertible-generation Cutlass come to mind.
No, we don’t know what that is in the center console.
Surprise! It’s a GM car with the 3800 engine. This was actually a new and upgraded version back then with relatively impressive output. Too bad the Trofeo didn’t pick up the turbocharged V6 from the one-year only Grand Prix turbo (?) and was too early for the nearly-ubiquitous supercharged version that graced so many cars later on.
Ad text:
THIS CAR RUNS AND DRIVE GREAT WITH A 3.8 V6 THAT HAS NO ISSUES TRANS HAS NO ISSUES,HAS COLD A/C TIRES ARE 80%,BODY HAS NO DENTS OR RUST, PAINT IS VERY SHINNY (DOES HAVE A FEW FADE SPOTS ON HOOD),INSIDE SARE IN GOOD SHAPE FOR THE AGE (CARPET CAN USE LITTLE CLEANING BUT NOT STAINEED,SUN ROOF WORKS GREAT, POWER WINDOWS ,LOCKS,SEATS, DASH, RADIO,ALL WORKS GOOD,GREAT DRIVER OR GOOD ONE TO RESTORE ,THESE CAR ARE HARD TO FIND ,THIS IS A 22 YEAR OLD CAR AND ITS NOT PERFICT ,QUISTIONS CALL 520xxxxxxx RICK THIS IS A BUY IT NOW PRICE